


Correlation != Causation

by ParvumAutomaton



Category: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Cartoon 2018)
Genre: Brotherly Angst, Brotherly Bonding, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, implied PTSD, post Lair Games, post Repairin' the Baron
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:07:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 10,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24098551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ParvumAutomaton/pseuds/ParvumAutomaton
Summary: Ever since Donnie won the Lair Games he’s noticed that Leo doesn’t seem to be sleeping much. Donnie wants to help him, and not just because it’s far easier to prank a sleeping brother, but that is exceedingly difficult when Leo doesn't want to share what’s going on.
Comments: 18
Kudos: 352





	1. Early Monday Morning

**Author's Note:**

> I am basing my timeline on both production order, (So, for instance Purple Jacket would come after Bug Busters) and continuity (So Lair Games would come after Breaking Purple through Pizza Puffs at least since Piebald wasn’t in any of the episodes and in Breaking Purple it’s clear Donnie and Leo have not yet switched rooms.)
> 
> Also I want to thank Scarabae for their encouragement and positive comments.

Donatello stared at the ceiling of his new, champion, room. He swore he could see the vent literally move in and out with each of Splinter’s snores. He couldn’t believe he fell for another one of Leo’s tricks. Throwing the Lair Games so he could unload his undesirable room. Donnie should have known better than to give up his own, already completely soundproofed, room. But the gold medal around his neck, Leo being forced to eat his words as he packed up his room, it was all too good to refuse. 

So here he was at two thirty in the morning still awake, even though he had laid down at a reasonable one thirty, all because of splinters snores. And sure, tomorrow, he could soundproof this room as well. But that would be admitting that Leo had won, that Leo had tricked him. And Donatello wasn’t going to go down without a fight. 

The pale light from the kitchen that someone, probably Raph after getting a midnight snack, had left on provided all the light he needed to make his way to the bathroom. And true, the whole shaving cream on the hand and sharpie drawings on the face were very old school pranks, but that would be part of the sweet sweet victory. If Leo wasn’t able to catch such an obvious prank, there was no way he could later brag about pranking Donnie at the Lair Games.

And Donnie knew he had an upper hand for pulling off said pranks. His old room was so well soundproofed there was no chance for Leo to hear him before he entered. So all he had to do was be very quiet for like three steps and then victory. He could do it. 

Donnie entered his old room on the balls of his feet. He had the muscle memory to take him right to the side of his old bed. Smiling to himself Donnie raised the shaving cream while waiting for his eyes to adjust so that he could get it right on Leo’s hand.

“Whatcha doing Donald?”

At the sound of Leo’s voice, Donnie spun to face the entrance of his old room, hiding both sharpie and shaving cream behind his back. He could see Leo’s silhouetted form, leaning against the entryway, and sipping from a mug.

“Nothing,” Donnie lied.

“Doesn’t look like nothing,” Leo retorted. And just because it was still too dark for Donnie to see his facial features didn’t mean that Donnie couldn’t feel his smug grin. “Were you attempting to start a prank war?”

“Of course not.”

“Then what do you have in your hands?”

“I don’t _start_ prank wars,” Donnie reiterated, “But I do finish them.”

Leo took another slow sip from his mug, chamomile tea if Donnie’s nose was correct. “I don’t remember starting a prank war.”

“You don’t?”

“No? What do you think I did?”

“I don’t think you did anything Nardo. I know you threw the Lair Games. Ha ha, lets all laugh at Donnie who doesn’t know he’s being played. But you have made a devious enemy that day.”

Leo snorted back laughter, but before Donnie could respond to the insult, Leo spoke.

“Do you really think I’d lose on purpose?” 

“Um... Yes? Because you wanted to get out of the champions a.k.a. loud snore room?”

Leo put his mug down and then placed both hands on Donnie’s shoulders.

“Listen. ‘Leo’ can’t mean ‘winning’ if I lose on purpose.”

“But you did lose on purpose.” Donnie said, shrugging off Leo’s hands.

“True I did want to lose. But that doesn’t mean I’d throw a match. _Winners_ don’t throw their matches. Besides if I was doing anything less than my best, you and that big brain of yours would have caught on.”

“So what then? Knowing you’d lose you put your room as a ‘prize’ to spite the winner.”

“What? No,” Leo said, sounding insulted. “Putting up my room was a prize to me. One I could only get if I successfully inspired you.”

“I didn’t need your inspiration.”

“I saw April’s documentary. You were way, way, too happy about how you did in the handstand hill-bomb.”

“But I got second.”

“My brother,” Leo said, returning one hand to Donnie’s shoulder. “You are way too good to settle for second place.”

“There are literally four of us,” Donnie deadpanned without shrugging off Leo’s hand. “We can’t all come in first.”

“Doesn't mean you should stop trying. Besides this year’s Lair Games was the most fun I’ve had in awhile. Disregarding Pop’s slippery wippery whatever.”

Donnie was glad the room was dark. It meant that Leo couldn’t see the stupid grin and blush that was forming on his face. He beat Leo fair and square, that day was still _his moment._ He’d call off the prank war, a truce before it started. Besides it wasn’t like it was going to be that hard to soundproof his new room. And if Leo was such a light sleeper that Don’s own muffled approach woke him, the room switch may be for the best. Even if Leo totally could have just asked for some help.


	2. Monday

“Ok Leo, I give up.”

Leo glanced up from his comic to look at Donnie. “What?”

“How did you do it?”

“Do what?”

“Do what?” Donnie scoffed. “Catch me. I’ve measured noise and vibration levels from every corner of your new room. Any noise I made during my plan and approach would be in the single digit decibels to you. That’s low enough to be drowned out by the sound of your own breathing.”

Leo smirked. “Simple. I didn’t hear you, I saw you.”

“You wear a sleep mask!”

“It was on my forehead.” Leo said emphatically.

“Leo- I don’t know how to tell you this. But the mask is supposed to go _over_ your eyes.”

“Of course I know that.” He answered with an eye roll.

“But you just said.- Donnie fumed

“Because I was awake.” Leo with over exaggerated patience. “It’s simple really. When I’m awake I put it on my forehead so that I can see. And when I’m asleep it goes down over my eyes.”

Donnie could practically taste Leo goading him into a fight over his eye mask. It would go around for circles with Donnie questioning how he was able to lower it while asleep and Leo giving smart aleck responses. And it would continue until it was time for training with Raph or Donnie forgot his original question. But no, Leo couldn’t give him compliments last night about being able to see through tricks and then try to pull one on him this morning. 

Donnie dropped his exasperation the best he could and met Leo’s eyes.

“So- why were you awake and not trying to get back to sleep?”

Leo snapped his mouth shut. His exaggerated agitation iced over to nothing.

That was not what Donnie was expecting to see.

“Leo?”

“I’m fine,” Leo’s voice was low and he slunk out of the common room. 

Donnie balled his fists uselessly. 

“I can’t help you if you don’t give me information,” Donnie called after him. He got no response but after a moment Donnie grinned. “But then I realized that I don’t need to get the information from you. I have a sleep tracking app on my bed. I can see how well you were sleeping for myself.”

Downloading the data only took Donnie a few moments. But he didn’t really like what he saw. From Leo’s first day in his new bed, he rarely slept more than one to two hours at time. He’d then wake up and spend at least an hour out of bed before returning. Which was a less than ideal sleep schedule. 

However he couldn’t confront Leo right away. He had to wait until after a team building session led by Raph, which towards the end descended into a reminder to not eat poison session. 

Which scoff... Donnie needed to hold “don’t store non edible or poisonous things in the same place food is stored” lessons, as that was like Science 101. Well not quite 101 since there were plenty of scientists who had been injured or died because of improper sample storage. So maybe Modern Science 101. Which Donnie remembered was not the actual point just before he left.

“Leo?”

Said turtle turned back to look at Donnie. “Yeah?”

Donnie took a second to glance around. Raph was still cleaning after their training, and Mikey had already made his way to the kitchen. Still Donnie spoke in a low voice.

“If you can’t sleep in your new room we can switch back.”

Leo waved him off. “No way, I’m fine.”

“I have graphs to say that you are not.”

“Really?”

“Yes,” Donnie said, pulling up the relevant data from his tech-gauntlet. But Leo didn’t even bother to look at it.

“What’s that thing you’re always saying? Collaboration doesn’t equal causticiness?”

Donnie could feel his drawn on eyebrow twitch. 

“That’s not it at all.”

“Really?” Leo said, drawing the sound out. “So you don’t say it?” 

“I say correlation doesn’t equal causation.”

“You sure? I think mine makes more sense.”

“It doesn’t,” Donnie deadpanned.

“Positive?”

“Yes.” Donnie stated firmly “Collaboration is multiple people working together and causticiness is the property of being caustic aka burning or corroding. Combined like that the two words make no sense.”

“Oh but they do. See just because people work together doesn't mean that the interaction has to be caustic. It can be but-”

Donnie cut him off. “That’s not right.”

“Pretty sure it is,” Leo said, elongating each syllable.

“Pretty sure it isn’t.” Donnie responded sharply. “The actual quote is correlation which means that two things are related and causation which means one thing caused the other. So just because two variables are related in a statistical sense doesn’t mean that one of them necessarily caused the other.”

Leo grinned. “Exactly. I knew you had a big brain.”

Donnie sputtered as Leo walked off. He was so focused on Leo’s retreating form that he didn’t even notice Raph until he placed his hand on Donnie’s back.

“What was that about?”

“Someone can’t remember highly important quotes about statistics.”

“Leo?” Raph asked.

“Of course.”

“What made you decide to test his skill in quotes anyway? You know he mixes up words like you mix pronunciations.”

Donnie ignored the barb, which was much easier to do with Raph than Leo, and sighed.

“He hasn’t been sleeping well.”

“Again?”

“Yes- wait. Again?”

Raph’s cheeks visibly darkened. And he pointly looked away from Donnie.

“Well if he hasn’t told you then...”

“No he hasn’t. But he is sleeping in my old bed which has a sleep app built in. And thus I know that he's’ been sleeping for like two hours in a row top-” Donnie cut himself off looking closely at Raph. “And you don’t look surprised. Has this happened before?”

Raph shrugged. “Yes. Once. But it’s solved now.”

“Then it must have come back,” Donnie countered pointing at the graph on his tech-gauntlet. “Although if it was solved before perhaps we can repeat that and help Leo actually get a full night’s sleep. Sleep deprivation can be very detrimental to both reaction time and the ability to make good decisions. It could put him in danger.”

“Right, right. I’ll just remind him of what I told him last time and it will all be...” Raph trailed off turning slightly pale as he looked in the direction Leo had gone. “Oh no.”

“Oh no?”

“It won’t work,” Raph said so softly Donnie had to strain to hear.

“Why not? It did before?”

“Meat Sweat’s pizza puffs.”

“Nice non sequitur,” Donnie said, prompting Raph to continue.

“I told you all that I wouldn’t help. That you had to solve it on your own.”

“And we did. So?”

“So to make the bad dream go away in the first place I told Leo I’d always be there to catch him if he fell. That he could count on me. But now he feels like he can’t and-”

Raph’s forehead was creased with worry.

“Bad Dreams?” Donnie prompted. “About what?”

“Falling. The catch part was literal.”

Donnie tapped his tech-gauntlet, more out of habit than actually needing it to think.

“So now at least the subconscious part of his mind is worried about falling again. Which means we just have to assuage that worry.”

“No.” Raph said. “I do. It’s my fault and I’m his older brother. I’m gonna go talk to him and make sure he knows that I’m still gonna be there if he needs it.”

Donnie watched him go with an unheard ‘ok’. But if Raph was handling it then Donnie could go back to other pressing matters. Like soundproofing his new room. 

However Donnie was only able to glue acoustic foam to about half the plywood sheets that he would need to make his sound maze when Raph walked back to him.

“I don’t think it worked,” he said softly.

“Why?”

“Because when I apologized and tried to reassure Leo, he only reacted with confusion.”

Donnie looked at Raph, raising a sharpie-ed eyebrow. “You know Leo does that fake confusion thing to avoid dealing with stuff he doesn’t want to deal with.”

“Yeah I know but this wasn’t fake confusion, it was real.”

“You can tell the difference?”

“Sometimes.”

Donnie looked down at his tech-gauntlet. “Regardless. We will know by tomorrow morning if it worked.”

“And what if it doesn’t?” Raph asked miserably.

Donnie patted Raph’s arm awkwardly with one hand. With the other he pushed away the supplies that he was using to make his sound maze. It looked like he’d need to finish it some other day. He had more important work to do at the moment.

“Then _science_ will come to the rescue.”

  
  
  



	3. Tuesday

Donnie couldn’t bring himself to feel all that surprised that Raph’s plan didn’t work. He had confirmed it this morning with the sleep tracker app showing another restless night for Leonardo. And although he didn’t like that Leo had one more bad night, he was confident in his own plan to solve the problem.

Donnie sat on one of the many bean bag chairs strewn around their living slash television room. He watched Leo stride into the kitchen and two minutes later heard the electric, and not part of ancient evil armor, kettle boil. Leo took another six minutes to leave the kitchen, mug in hand, so Donnie assumed that he must have waited out the longer steep time of herbal tea. Which Donnie took as a good sign. The restless night hadn’t taken enough out of him to have him switch to the caffeine in green or black tea. Which meant he should be game for Donnie’s plan, as long as Donnie could convince him to play along.

“Hey Leon!”

Leo looked at Donnie, took a slow sip of his tea and smiled. “Yeah?”

“I’m planning on doing some science today.”

“And how exactly is that new?” Leo said, grinning wider.

“Because I require your assistance with some momentum experiments.” 

Leo blinked. “Uhhh, D. Are you sure?”

“Completely. But it’s not exactly you I need, rather I need your sword and someone that can wield it.”

“I could do that,” Leo said sipping tea and seeming to relax. “But what’s in it for me?”

“Cool new portal tricks?”

Leo took a swig of tea and grinned. “Count me in, just let me get my odachi.”

It only took Leo a few moments to return his mug to the kitchen, grab his sword, and portal both him and Donnie to an abandoned zipline course near Todd’s Cuddle Cakes Puppy Rescue.

Donnie led him up to one of the tallest zipline platforms, and the only one with plenty of open space below it. 

“First things first,” Donnie said, snapping his newest invention, two metalic blue armlets that snapped around Leo’s upper arms.

“Ohhhh awesome,” Leo said, bringing up his bicep to admire Donnie’s invention. “Wait these aren’t going to shock me are they?”

“Of course not. These are my wind wings.”

“Um ok?”

“They are like water wings, except instead of preventing the user from sinking too far in water, they prevent the user from falling too far in air.”

“So,” Leo said with a smug grin. “Just _wings_ then?”

Donnie pushed Leo off the platform. 

Donnie allowed himself a second to grin before leaning over the edge. He could see that his invention had deployed perfectly, as expected, leaving Leo hoving in in the air a few feet above the ground.

“Don! These are awesome!” Leo called up, moving his arms slightly so that it looked like he was floating on his back, while carefully keeping the deployed rotors from his face and mask tails.

“You are welcome!” 

Leo relaxed, letting his feet touch the ground, at which point the rotors returned to the arm bands. He then grabbed his sword from his back and portaled to the platform behind Donnie. 

“So what’s the plan?” he asked.

Donnie turned around to face Leo.

“I want to see how much momentum is lost by going through a portal. We know in general what they do, but if we knew their exact physics, we, you, could exploit that to do some really cool stunts.”

“So do you have a ball or something you want to throw through?”

“No I have someone better.”

“I’m not sure I’m a better idea.”

“It will be fine Leo, just step off this platform and make two platforms on the ground. Fall into one and come out the other. Based on how high you get we can see how much momentum you lose, or gain.”

Leo hesitated for a second looking over the edge, and Donnie felt a knot form in the pit of his stomach. Pushing Leo, even when he was sure that his wind wings would work and knowing that they had all landed safely from heights greater than this, was not his best idea.

“We can go to a shorter platform.”

Leo waved him off. 

“I got this,” he said as he lifted his sword and stepped off the edge.

Donnie watched as Leo fell, making two portals directly below them. As expected he shot in one and then out of the other, slowing until he was just shy of the platform’s height, at which point he began to fall and pick up speed again.

“Good news,” Donnie called to him, “The portal is sapping and not creating momentum.”

“Great,” Leo called back, having just shot out of the portal he had initially started the experiment entering. “So how do I get off this ride?”

“Just keep riding the portal seesaw until you slow enough to step off.” 

“You’re making a lot of assumptions about how long I can keep these open.” Leo responded after exiting his portals for the third time.

As Leo rose in the air Donnie could see the white knuckled grip that Leo had on his sword. He could see the portal below him close. Leo twisted mid-air and clipped his sword to his back. Donnie noted some flailing, but his wind wings deployed allowing Leo the time to get his feet under him for a soft superhero landing.

“Nailed it,” Leo said, slowly opening his eyes.

Donnie watched as Leo took a few deep breaths before pulling his sword off of his back and making a portal from ground to platform.

“I’m sorry that didn’t work,” Donnie said to Leo as he stepped onto the platform.

Leo shrugged. “It’s fine. Besides, now you have more information about portal momentum, and the limits of my strength when it comes to keeping portals open when nothing is inside.”

“Yeah but I was really hoping that we could use them to help catch-” Donnie cut himself off and rubbed the back of his neck, if he told the truth he risked driving Leo away. “To help catch me should my battle shell fail.”

Donnie felt the full weight of Leo’s concern when he spoke.

“Are you worried about it? Is something going wrong?”

“No, no no.” Donnie clarified quickly. “But good engineering requires implementing safety measures against unexpected failings.”

“Right...” Leo said slowly.

“Besides then I could invest in a new purple satin jacket, one not related to a band of well dressed crooks, without worrying that the fabric would get caught in the rotors and cause me to crash.”

Leo stuck the tip of his sword into the platform and leaned on it.

“As much as I’d love to help. And believe me I really do, since I know I could leverage this help into you finding me my own blue satin jacket. But my potals only manipulate place, not speed. Speed in is always pretty much speed out.”

Donnie clapped his hands together.

“Oh ho ho, that’s genius! Not as genius as me, but still...”

“What?”

“Your portals manipulate distance, and distance, when considering height from the ground, manipulates energy.”

Leo blinked. “Uhh?”

“G h equals one half v squared,” Donnie explained grinning before adding a quick afterthought. “The m on both sides of the equation cancels.”

“Ok?”

Donnie sighed. “Consider the skate ramp. When you are at the top you have a bunch of potential energy. Gravity times the height of the ramp times your mass. But you have no kinetic energy, a.k.a. mass times one half velocity squared a.k.a. speed. As you go down the ramp you trade height for speed, so at the bottom you are moving with maximum velocity but your potential energy is lowest.”

“Slow at the top, fast at the bottom.” Leo stated. “Yeah I know. So?”

“So if you were to portal from the top of the ramp to the bottom you wouldn’t have the velocity increase from falling, just whatever speed you walked into the portal with.”

“Which means I would need to portal you before you pick up speed from falling.” Leo said with a sigh. “I’m sorry D that’s a very small window, and I can’t count on reacting that fact, especially-”

“But that’s the glory of physics, you don’t have to.”

“Doesn’t physics state that the farther I fall the more speed I gain?”

Donnie noticed that Leo had slipped. That they were no longer talking about a hypothetical failed rotor. But they were too close for Donnie to even consider changing the conversation now to point it out.

“Physics states the farther you fall down, the more you will accelerate, until you reach terminal velocity,” Donnie clarified before returning to his point. “If you were to fall up however. Then you would lose speed.”

“How exactly am I supposed to fall up?” Leo asked, but didn’t wait for Donnie to answer.

His grin grew wide. And he launched himself off of the platform.

Just like the first time he placed two portals on the ground. But this time, as soon as he exited the portal and started his assent those two portals disappeared. And when he reached the top of his ‘fall’ he placed a portal directly underneath him. Landing easily on the ground in another superhero landing. 

Leo looked up at Donnie with a cocky grin.

“I didn’t even need the wind wings this time. Wanna try?”

Donnie didn’t hesitate before jumping. The wind rushed up to greet him. And by the time he thought about thinking what his velocity was, it was already far too fast. And while Donnie trusted Leo, the sight of the ground growing larger and larger made him consider stopping this experiment by activating his battle shell. At least until he noticed the blue glow of Leo’s portal below him, and he just shut his eyes and waited.

Donnie opened his eyes when he felt himself starting to slow. He was upside down and had no idea how to replicate Leo’s maneuver that kept him upright. Not that he needed to, as Leo formed a portal above his feet and Donnie was right side up and on the ground.

“Pretty fun right?” Leo said grinning.

“It’s not bad as a fail safe,” Donnie said before raising his hand to his mouth. “But oh, my stomach.”

Donnie sat on the ground, leaning forward slightly as he let the wave of nausea pass. As he waited he felt the pressure from Leo’s shell pressed up against his own battle shell. 

Donnie leaned back against Leo. Sitting shell to highly advanced technology to shell was nice.

“Thank you,” Leo said softly. He didn’t move to face Donnie. But their heads were so close together that Donnie could hear each word. 

“Whatever are you talking about?” Donnie answered lightly. “You helped me.”

“Of course.” Leo gave a soft laugh, one that Donnie felt more than he heard. “But still. It means a lot.” 

Leo lifted his arm, extending it and pointing his fist backwards. Donnie raised his own arm and returned the fist bump.

“For you, anytime.”

It was Leo who eventually broke the easy silence between the two of them.

“I’ve got something I should do- Unless you have more tests to run.”

“No more planned tests,” Donnie said, hiding his disappointment as Leo stood. “Just portal me home first.”

Leo grinned and with a quick movement of his sword Donnie was transported back into the lair.

It took Leo less than thirty minutes to return, but by that time Donnie was waist deep in his room’s vents installing his sound maze. Still Leo sounded happy when he greeted him, and Donnie was quite pleased with the outcome of his plan.

  
  
  



	4. Wednesday

The first thing Donnie did Wednesday morning was check the sleep app. The second thing he did was hop out of bed and perform a victory dance. The third thing he did was go into the kitchen and show Raph the graph. He drunk in the praise he received. 

Although Donnie did start to worry that it wasn’t warranted when Leo stumbled into the kitchen. 

Leo’s eyes were still half lidded. And every few minutes as he made his tea and pulled out fruit from the fridge he stifled a yawn. Donnie shot a worried look towards Raph. But Raph seemed far more interested in his own half hearted attempts to stop smiling at his plate of eggs.

Eventually Leo sat next to Donnie. And between large bites of fruit and small sips of tea Leo questioned him about the progress Donnie had made in the vents. 

“I’m so glad you asked Leon. I have finished installing a sound maze in them, which is a method for decreasing the amount of noise transferred via vents without a corresponding decrease in airflow. I did this by installing plywood panels covered in acoustic foam within the vent. These panels don’t cover the entire width of the vent so airflow is unhindered, but any sound traveling between vents needs to bounce off of the acoustic foam, which is so named because of it’s sound absorbing qualities.-”

“So it worked?” Leo asked, lazily waving at Mikey as he entered the kitchen. 

“Of course it worked. I built it after all.”

Leo smiled at him. “Indeed. You are very good at what you do.”

Donnie half expected Leo to bring up Albearto. Which wasn’t a failure so much as an unexpectedly extreme success, and didn’t directly cause April to get fired. Honestly what type of boss fired an employee who was protecting kids from an animatronic mishap that was nobody's fault, except maybe said boss for not investing in better water resistance in a high ‘thrown drink’ zone. But as the moments passed and Leo went back to his breakfast Donnie allowed himself to grin back, relishing the complement.

However before he could thank Leo and fish for more, Mikey broke the silence.

“So I’ve been thinking. Draxum’s been making real progress since he started as April’s lunch-sheep. Which would make it a perfect time to try another family dinner.”

“You know,” Leo drawled, placing his hand on top of his mug and rolling it as he talked. “I don’t think dad will be too pleased about having to make his prized casserole for his mortal enemy.”

“Which is why I’m going to cook, Leon.” Mikey countered as Leo rolled his eyes, who Donnie was pleased to note was no longer lounging meaning either the caffeine had kicked in or Donnie’s app engineering was on point. 

Raph looked up from his eggs. “So when is this dinner supposed to be? And where?”

“I’m thinking Friday night. Since he’s working at April’s school so he’s pretty much following April’s schedule. As for where,” Mikey paused for a moment looking pensive. “We did have it at his apartment last time. So maybe... here?”

“Are you sure about that?” Raph said furrowing his brow.

“He’s family.” Mikey countered.

“Only technically.” Donnie corrected.

“I think the idea has merit.” Leo said with a smirk. “Less chance of defamation if we meet him underground. Although he is crafty.”

“Defamation?” Donnie asked with a deadpan voice.

“You know,” Leo answered, gesturing. “The fancy old fashioned word for throwing someone out of a window.”

“Do you mean ‘defenstation’?”

“No, I’m pretty sure that’s telling lies about someone.”

Donnie sighed and Leo laughed. But their banter was broken when Splinter entered the room.

“What are you boys planning?”

“Nothing,” Mikey answered quickly, continuing only after Splinter raised an eyebrow at him. “Just talking with my brothers about dinner plans for Friday.”

“And what is so special about Friday?”

“Nothing.”

Splinter looked at Mikey hard. “I assume you still remember the lesson about lying to your father?”

“Fine. Draxum’s made a lot of progress and I was thinking that maybe we could have a family dinner here-”

“Absolutely not.”

“Please.”

“No.”

Mikey frantically scanned the table.

”Leo thinks it’s a good idea.”

Splinter turned to him, arms crossed. “You do?”

“I mean it’s much harder to _throw someone off a roof_ if you’re underground.” Leo answered with a smirk.

“The skate ramp is pretty high,” Splinter countered.

“Ohh, good point,” Leo said, never losing his smirk.

Mikey glared at him. “Leo, you’re not helping.”

Leo laughed.

“No, he has helped plenty,” Splinter said firmly. “New family rule. No one who has mutated me into a rat or thrown my son off of a roof gets invited over. For dinner or otherwise.”

“But-”

“That is final.”

“Fine,” Mikey sighs. “We’ll have dinner at his place.”

“And he’s not getting any more of my green bean casserole.”

“I’m cooking.” Mikey counters firmly. “And unless you can play nice, you’re not invited.”

“You- You can’t uninvite me.”

“I can and I will.” Mikey said firmly.

Splinter took two harsh breaths through his nose, his whiskers flaring ears back, but he didn't push the argument any further.

Splinter left the kitchen first, followed by Raph and then Mikey. Leo glared at his mug for a bit before pouring most of his black tea down the sink. He stood there, shell towards Donnie, for slightly longer than it took to empty his mug. But when he turned around he gave Donnie a smile and strode out of the kitchen. 

And Donnie relaxed seeing him engerized. And with the amount of tea he poured into the sink it wasn’t from the caffeine. Which meant that Donnie’s earlier worry was for nothing. Which meant he could get back to working on other important things. Such as the metal bust of himself. Or putting sound mazes in all the vents so that any future room swaps wouldn’t lead to another unfortunate surprise. 

Donnie decided to go with installing more sound mazes. He spent most of the morning prepping plywood boards, and by midafternoon he had left his lab to tackle the vents. 

Raph was sparring with Franken Foot in the garage. Mikey was reading cookbooks and checking ingredients in the kitchen. And Leo was sitting cross legged in the central atrium. He was holding a threaded needle in his mouth as he scrolled through you-tube videos, blue and purple fabric spread around him.

With his brothers distracted, Donnie thought that he would have plenty of time to install the new sound mazes in peace. But he had just gotten himself squeezed into one of the vents in the living room when his assumption proved incorrect and one of his brothers tapped his foot.

“Hey D?” Leo asked, his voice muffled by the vents before reaching Donnie. “When you have a second could you try something on?”

Donnie finished the installation of the board he had in his hand before pushing himself out of the vent.

He turned toward Leo, who was wearing a lopsided grin and a new blue sweater and presenting Donnie with a purple one.

“Another sweater?” Donnie said dryly, reaching down to grab a new board.

Leo rubbed the back of his neck. “I figured Mikey might want us to dress fancy again.”

“Then I could wear the sweater I already have.”

“But Draxum doesn’t deserve our ‘Meeting the O’Neils’ attire.”

“While that is true, does that also mean that you pulled me away from my work to give me a worse version of a thing I already have?”

“Not worse,” Leo said pushing the sweater towards Donnie, “Different.”

“Different how?” Donnie asked as he took the sweater. He could feel small hard circles through the fabric. If Leo had bedazzled something like ‘not stupid enough to put on evil armor’ Donnie planned to wear it everytime that he might see Draxum, even if he didn’t plan on admitting that fact to Leo. 

But when he unfurled the garment, it just looked like an ordinary purple sweater.

“This one has snaps, and the blood spit and tears of your brother in it.” Leo explained, holding up his hands where there were several small round band-aids on the tips of his fingers. “It should allow you to deploy your rotors from beneath the sweater without having to worry about torn fabric getting sucked into them.”

Donnie blinked.

“Wow Leo. Thank you. I- wait. Blood spit and tears?”

“It’s handstitched. I don’t trust pop’s sewing machine. Although if it makes you feel better most of the blood and tears were spent in the creation of mine.” Leo said waving his hand over his own sweater. “Trying to get my spare strap on it without weirdly bunching the sweater fabric was not easy.”

“So why do it?”

With a flourish Leo pulled his odachi from his back. He grinned at Donnie for a moment before the expression fell. 

“I didn’t cut another hole did I?”

Donnie inspected the back of Leo’s sweater. He saw several neat lines, stitched closed near where his sword rested, but that was it.

“Not this time.” Donnie said.

“And not at dinner on Friday,” Mikey said standing at the entrance to the living room, cookbook in hand.

“What?”

Mikey poked Leo’s plastron. “We are not bringing weapons to a friendly family dinner.”

“But-”

“We want him to feel welcomed. That he can trust us,” Mikey cut in before Leo could complain. “How will he let down his walls enough to learn how to be a good sheepman, if we keep threatening him with weapons?”

Leo waved Mikey off. “I’m not going to use it. I’m going to wear it. Like a car spoiler. It’s not really doing anything most of the time, but it lets you know the owner is awesome.”

“No weapons.” 

“But-” Leo started, halting when Mikey narrowed his eyes. “Ok fine.”

Mikey smiled. “Thank you Leo.”

Leo shrugged in response before slinking back to his room. Donnie made a note to talk to Leo tomorrow about if he thought he could do a similar modification on satin.

  
  
  



	5. Thursday

When Donatello walked into the kitchen in the morning he was pleased to see Leo was already there, sipping some tea that smelled sweet and herbal. Donnie was less pleased with the smug grin and the “good morning sleepyhead.”

Donnie grunted at Leo and got his flavorless juice from the fridge. 

“Got any plans today?” Leo asked.

“There are some upgrades I want to make to the turtle tank.”

“Oh.” Leo said softly, and Donnie thought that he saw him deflate. 

“Unless,” Donnie said flatly, “you want to go on a junkyard run with me?”

Leo waved him off. “Not today. Besides I’m not sure Repo would want to see us so soon after that whole cat situation.”

Donnie laughed. Leo smiled, placed his cup in the sink, and wandered out of the kitchen before Donnie finished his juice.

Before starting work on the tank upgrade, Donnie did check on Leo. He was lounging on a beanbag chair in the atrium with Raph. Raph was lifting weights while Leo was curled up nearby with some comic books.

Donnie went to work, and only came down when his phone rang. He noted the caller, April, and the time, just past noon, before answering with video.

“You are conversing with Donatello.” He said as the video came up. Despite the drab cinder block wall that was behind her head, Donnie could tell she was in the lunchroom. The general din of the other students, the occasional shout from the lunch-sheep at the other end of the cafeteria. 

"I was expecting a call from you yesterday," April said. 

“You were?” Donnie blinked. His calendar app hadn’t alerted him to any important events. And he knew that they hadn’t made a plan to talk yesterday..

“That’s what I was worried you’d say,” April said with a wince. “How’d your revenge prank on Leo go?”

“It didn’t.”

“Yet or-?”

“I called it off.”

April tilted her head. “Really?”

“Affirmative. I actually had a nice late night talk with him. No revenge pranking is needed,” Donnie paused for a second, “for now.”

“But you have a backup?”

“Not at the moment. Do you think I need one? Is there footage you haven’t shown me?”

“No, no, not at all.”

“Then what?”

April pursed her lips. “So, Leo came over Tuesday evening and gave me a gift. One that he was very insistent that I wear, because it would, and I quote, ‘make me super fly.’ And while it was blue, I couldn’t exactly ignore the style, which screamed ‘Donnie invention’. But you never called to see if I had it, and ask how I liked it, or what the best parts were the best. Which is how I knew that you didn’t know that Leo had given it to me.”

“Thus your first thought was that one of my prank inventions got pushed into the world?”

“Yeah.”

“Never fear April, nothing of the sort has left my lab. Although I do wonder what he gave you. And where exactly he got it from.” Donnie paused and gave a quick breathy laugh. “If it’s something unfinished, I might have to ask for it back.”

“Of course,” April said quickly. She then opened her jacket and pulled it away from her bicep. Donnie only needed a glimpse to identify it.

“My wind wings!”

Before April could speak Donnie conituned, speaking to himself as he navigated away from the video call.

“It’s probably not that bad. It’s probably fine. It’s- “

It wasn’t fine. The graph on his app showed the fractured sleep cycle from the night before.

“Damnit Leo!” 

“Ohh is it bad?” Donnie heard April’s voice ask as he quickly switched back to the video call. “Dangerous?”

“What? No no no,” Donnie said waving his hand. “They are a safety device. A water wing except designed for the air.”

“So a wing?”

“No. Wings are to enable flight. These are safety measures to prevent hitting the ground at a high rate of speed.”

“Ohh,” April said looking over the phone camera for a moment. “Well then, I think I’ll keep them. Never know when a fight is going to break out on the roof of the school.”

“The wonders of the education system.” Donnie said, hand to his plastron. 

April’s laugh was cut off by the ringing of a bell. 

“Shoot. I’ve got to get to class, but I assume Mikey is still having his dinner tomorrow.”

“As far as I know.”

“So, see you there?”

“With great reluctance and unbridled sarcasm.”

“Sounds like a plan,” April said before giving him finger guns and ending the call.

Donnie allowed himself a moment to revel in the glorious tag team of sarcasm that Friday was sure to bring, before he moved onto the more pressing matters. He left the in progress tank upgrades to stalk into the atrium. Raph had left but Leo was still lounging and reading comics.

“You gave April my wind wings?”

“No-” Leo started.

“I just got off the phone with her.”

“They could be anything-”

“Video call.”

Leo looked away. “Yes.”

“Leo,” Donnie sputtered, “I gave you those to help with the bad dreams.”

“And I am very appreciative. But now they have a better purpose. Making April look super fly,” Leo laughed to himself. “Heh, fly, get it?”

“Not funny Leo.”

“Bet April would think that was a good one,” Leo muttered.

“Why?”

Leo smirked at Donnie. “Because she appreciates my puns... sometimes.”

“No,” Donnie waved him off, “why give her my invention?”

“What’s the big deal? It’s not like they’ll hurt her.” Leo paused, his smirk falling. “They won’t hurt her right?”

“Of course not. I specifically designed them to take the user’s weight, speed, overall rigidity, and height from the ground, into account. All of these variables are then used to calculate the safest deceleration rate on the fly.”

Leo’s smirk returned. “Ahhh, my pun was so good you had to use it for yourself?”

“I didn't-” Donnie cut himself off as he realized that he did. “That’s not the point.”

“No, the point is that April’s safe. Th _air_ fore I don’t see what the problem is.”

Donnie threw his hands up and stalked away without another word. He caught sight of Raph entering the atrium with a half eaten sandwich in his hand. 

“What’s wrong?” Raph asked him.

Donnie grabbed Raph by his elbow and led him to Donnie’s newly soundproofed room. 

“You said you were able to help him.” Donnie hissed glancing back in the direction where Leo had returned to reading his comic. “How did you do that? Because he is being impossible.”

Raph shugged. “I ran into him one night, late, before he could get his tea.”

Donnie clapped his hands. “Right he must be using that to get the energy to shrug me off. But I can replace all the black tea with decaf versions and-”

“Actually,” Raph cut him off. “Herbal tea, not black. I think he uses it to calm down.”

“So he drinks herbal tea when he has nightmares and black when he doesn’t? That is the independent verification of my sleep tracker app that I needed. Which means I can set an alarm to wake us up when he gets up.”

“Don’t you think that’s a little bit... invasion of privacy-ey.”

“I _am_ the Lair games champion. I sleep in the champion’s room. And considering that Leo’s interrogated me well past midnight, it’s my right.”

  
  
  



	6. Early Friday Morning

Donnie shot out of bed when his alarm went off. He texted Raph as he raced to the kitchen. All he had to do was keep himself between Leo and the kettle, until Leo talked. At which point Donnie was confident that he could engineer a solution and everything would be fine.

When he got to the kitchen, Donnie flicked the lights on and was relieved to see that the water in the kettle was still cool. He checked outside the kitchen and then sat at the table. He then stood, flipped the electric kettle on and sat again.

When Raph arrived a few long minutes later, he didn’t sit, nor did he speak.

Donnie didn’t mind. He just checked outside the kitchen again. There was a light shining from under the door of the bathroom. He just had to wait. He sat again. 

He stood again. Walked over to the kettle and waited. He flicked the kettle off as soon as he heard water beginning to boil, beating the automatic shut off. 

From the pantry he pulled out a bag of herbal tea. He then sat at the table. Waited. Stood and paced to the kettle. Paced back to his chair and back to the kettle where he decided that the water must be cool enough by now and poured it into a mug and let the tea bag steep.

Donnie sat again. He stood again. Grabbing the mug of tea from the counter and placing it at the spot next to him. Donnie sat again.

Donnie looked down, intent on pulling up the sleep app to double check that Leo was actually awake when Raph spoke. 

“Hey buddy.”

The satisfaction that Donnie would normally feel when he or one of his brothers managed to catch Leo by surprise was nonexistent. All he cared about was the fact that Leo’s face seemed to be as pale as the stripes on his arm.

“Bad dream?” Raph asked, gently guiding him away from the kettle and towards the mug already sitting on the table.

Leo didn’t look at him. His eyes were fully fixed on the rim of the mug as he gave a single nod. 

Raph placed his hand on Leo’s shell, pushing slightly until Leo sat at the table next to Donnie. Raph sat on the other side of Leo arm slung over Leo’s shell.

“Want to talk about it?”

“I’m fine”

Leo grabbed the mug in front of him. Donnie could see ripples start to dance across the surface of the tea.

Raph waited until Leo finished his first long swallow of tea before he spoke again.

“Is it the same nightmare?”

“I’d have to have been asleep for a pretty long time if it was.” Leo said. The smile he tried to give with the statement didn’t even last for even a second.

“You know what I meant.” Raph pushed back, his voice light.

“I’m fine.” Leo repeated after taking another swallow of tea.

“You know I’ll always be there to catch you.”

Leo stared at his tea.

“I know. And you know that I’ll let you off the hook if you miss?” Leo smirked. “I mean I have eaten a lot of pavement while skateboarding, and that’s not a trend I see ending anytime soon.”

“You know that’s not what I meant,” Raph said. “But if you need me to, I will be there to dive after you every time you lose control of your skateboard.”

Leo laughed. “Please don’t.”

“No promises.” Raph countered.

Leo stood, drained the remainder of his tea, and placed the mug in the sink.

“Thank you for the tea,” Leo said softly. “I’m going to see if I can get a few more hours sleep before tomorrow.”

Before Leo could leave the kitchen Donnie snagged his wrist. 

“It might be beneficial to try a different approach,” Donnie said. “As I assume that simply returning to bed has not proved efficient in eliminating the nightmares.”

“What do you suggest?” Leo asked. “The tranq darts you have last less than an hour.”

“Those are plan M, at best,” Donnie said. “I’m thinking that we could pull together some bean bag chairs in the living room and maybe put on some relaxing background noise.”

Leo slumped forward. “I’d like that.”

“Raph, why don’t you and Leo get the room comfortable. I’ll get Mikey.”

“Don’t.” Leo said. “Out of all of us, he needs a good night’s rest tonight. He’s doing good work. Draxum could be a useful ally to have. I mean as long as he’s not just pretending to get Mad Dog protection from the Mystic City Police.”

Raph shot up, and Donnie could see the change to ‘protective big brother mode’.

“You think he is?”

Leo shrugged. “I don’t know, but the timing is suspicious. On the other hand, Doc Positive is a miracle worker.”

“Yeah,” Raph agreed, “he is.”

Once they reached the living room, Raph and Leo pushed together every bean bag chair they could find. Donnie scrounged up blankets and ropes. The former of which was for maximum comfort, the latter was to keep Leo and Raph’s creation from drifting apart overnight and depositing the brothers onto the floor. 

Once preparations were complete, Leo and Donnie both lay on top of Raph, where he enveloped both of them in a hug. Leo curled up, head against Raph’s plastron and hand clutching Donnie’s wrist. Donnie kept his other hand free for television control. As expected neither Leo or Raph lasted long listening to a calm narrator describing the process that was used to make crayons. 

And once this current issue was resolved Donnie would be sure to tease Leo about not staying awake long enough to pull his eye mask down. 

But the issue had to be resolved first.

Which was why Donnie wasn’t planning to sleep. He watched the segment on crayons followed by wooden kayaks, lawn mowers, and gold chains. He scrolled social media and browsed some makers forums for more ideas for the turtle tank, even if it was annoying to try to maneuver his phone one handed. And as convenient as it would be he wasn’t going to sleep in his battle shell just to get some extra arms. Besides to get it now he’d have to move and at the moment that was out of the question.

After approximately ninety minutes, Donnie felt what he had been waiting for. 

Leo’s fingers started to twitch against Donnie’s arm. And if Donnie leaned very close to Leo’s face he could see the rapid eye movements under his eyelids that this phase of sleep was named for. And being so close he could also hear some of what Leo was mumbling.

“~ ~ ~ ~ bugs ju~ ~ ~ ~ bugs”

Donnie didn’t have much time to process just what _bugs_ could mean when he felt the twitching in Leo’s fingers increase. Donnie could see his other hand latch onto Raph’s arm. He could hear Leo’s breathing quicken.

And eight seconds later Leo jerked, eyes flying open.

Leo’s eyes were wide, but his pupils were narrowed to dots, looking at nothing. His jaw then snapped shut, clenching hard and freezing Leo’s formally quick breathing.

Donnie had never seen Leo like this, all confidence, bravado, and even sheepishness ripped away leaving only terror. It felt invasive to even look at him like that.

“Leo?” he whispered, softly touching his shoulder.

Leo’s only response was a guttural wimper.

Donnie pushed Raph’s arm off of Leo’s chest, allowing it to fall limply to the side.

“Come on Leo, you’re safe.” Donnie said, still keeping his voice low. 

Donnie could feel Leo shaking, he could see the tears forming, and he could hear Leo give another low pained wimper. Don desperately wished Raph was awake right now. 

But Donnie knew that any sound loud enough or movement drastic enough to wake Raph would also startle Leo. 

Which proved to be a moot concern when Leo startled anyway, bolting from the room.

That movement was enough to wake Raph. He blinked twice before asking Donnie, “Another bad dream?”

“Yes. However I am not one hundred percent sure a fear of falling is causing them. He was talking in his sleep before he woke up. Something about bugs.”

Raph froze.

“What?”

“‘Just give him the bugs just give him the bugs’?”

“That would fit,” Donnie responded. 

Raph squeezed his eyes shut, and cursed under his breath. Not a fake ‘I’m in front of my younger brothers’ curse, but a real one.

“What does it mean?”

“It means I messed up. Really really badly. You remember when Leo and I fought Draxum on the roof of the Nexus hotel?”

“When Leo fell?”

“Fell isn’t the right word for it.” Raph said, his voice brittle. “Draxum dangled him over the edge of the skyscraper. He offered me a deal, his bugs for my brother. I called his bluff.”

Raph pulled his knees to his chest. “It wasn’t a bluff.”

Donnie slowly placed his hand on Raph’s shoulder. “You caught him.”

“It shouldn’t have happened in the first place,” Raph said, firmly meeting Donnie’s eyes. “Where’s Leo now?”

“I don’t know. But if he follows the same pattern, perhaps the kitchen.”

The kitchen was still dark but there was light coming from the bathroom. And the wet wrenching noises that came from the other side of the door were all the incentive Raph needed to knock. Leo didn’t answer but the door swung open under his knuckles allowing both Donnie and Raph could clearly see him, curled on the ground in front of the toilet, breathing heavily.

“Leo?” 

At the sound of Raph’s voice, Leo jerked up to look at them, his face wet with tears.

“I’m sorry,” Leo said, rocking forward and closing his eyes. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

Leo never apologized on a whim. He never did it to get out of trouble or to ease over tensions. No he saved them until he felt genuine remorse, and a dedication to do better. It was how he was so good at them. But it was also why it was so unnerving to hear him apologize now. 

Raph crouched beside Leo and traced the patterns of his carapace through his nightshirt. “There is absolutely nothing that you should feel sorry for.”

“Yes there is,” Leo said softly pressing his face into his hands.

“What?”

“‘With my last breath I told you so’.”

“I mean you did and I didn’t listen,” Raph said, pulling Leo into a hug. “So- So I rescued you-”

Leo pushed away. “That’s the problem.” He said sharply.

“What? That I rescued you?”

“No. That I said something stupid and _you jumped off a skyscraper._ ”

“Leo,” Raph said firmly. “I don’t care if you had said ‘no matter what, don’t come after me,’ I was going to go after you.”

“You could have died. If you didn’t have your weapons if you didn’t get that power up. You would have died.” Leo’s voice broke. “Because of me.”

“And if I didn’t do something, you would have died because of me.”

“Um I hate to be that turtle,” Donnie interjected. “But you are both wrong. If either of you had died it would have been because of Draxum.”

Raph grinned. “It looks like Donnie’s schooling both of us with that big ol’ brain of his.”

Leo gave a choked wimper.

“Don’t tell me you think that Donnie would lie, or worse, provide an incorrect analysis of the situation?”

Leo closed his eyes and took several shuddering breaths. “No.”

“Ok then.” Raph said, pulling Leo into another hug. 

This time Leo did not push away.

Donnie watched frowning. He should have noticed that something was wrong sooner. Shell, he saw Leo up at strange hours only a few weeks after that fight at the Nexus hotel. If he had only paid more attention. 

Raph returned Donnie’s frown with a grimace of his own. 

“I’m sorry,” Raph said softly.

“For what?” Leo answered, his voice muffled from the embrace. 

“For not noticing that they didn’t stop.”

“But they did. I mean, mostly.”

“So what happened?”

“Draxum moved above April’s apartment, and into her school.”

Donnie crouched near Leo and Raph. 

“In the dreams, you’re not the only person he throws off a roof, are you?”

“No,” Leo said softly. “Sometimes it’s April from the top of her school. Which of course exists on top of the Nexus hotel. Sometimes it’s you guys, dropping down a long sewer that ends in a distant city street,” Leo shuddered against Raph. “But this time he did drop me. And Raph jumped after without his tonfas. He grabbed me, took the impact when we hit the ground. But even after I woke up, he was-”

Donnie placed his hand on Leo’s shoulder and squeezed. “He’s fine. That’s not the way that night happened and you know it. You also know that April will be fine because you gave her my wind wings.”

“Yeah,” Raph agreed. “And we are better than we were. Donnie has his rockets, Mikey has his whip, and I do have my tonfas. We’ll be able to catch ourselves.”

“Not if you don’t have your weapons. Not if you leave them behind,” Leo argued, voice breaking again.

Raph held Leo tight. Rocking slowly back and forth.

“I don’t want to go,” Leo choked out. “Not if I don’t have some way to stop him. But if I bring weapons then I fuck up any chance of him changing. Which means he will try it again. And I should just be braver, be better. But I’m not, and I can’t- I just can’t-” 

“Leo.”

“I swear, I’m trying. I’m trying so fucking hard. But every damn time I see him It’s like I just can’t calm down and I don’t know. I just can’t. I can’t.”

“We’ll figure something out,” Raph said, looking up helplessly at Donnie. “I promise.”

Donnie could fix a lot of things, buggy code, broken machines. He could improve lair security, or arm the turtle tank with military grade weapons. 

But this... 

Donnie looked at Leo. He was still crying, looking so very small curled against Raph’s plastron. He didn’t know how to fix this. He didn’t even know where to start.

He did, however, know someone who may.

“I’ll be back,” he mouthed to Raph, who nodded back to him over Leo’s head.

Donnie darted out of the bathroom and down past the kitchen. He continued until he reached the sewer pipe outside of Mikey’s room, knocking on it sharply.

Mikey responded groggily, “what is it?” 

“I’ve got a question for Dr. Feelings. Hug it out isn’t working.”

“It’s three AM, D.”

“It’s urgent.”

Mikey sighed. “Let me get my sweater.”

One quick wardrobe change later Mikey stood in front of a sitting Donnie, hands clasped behind his back.

“Alright, so what can Dr. Feelings help you with today?”

Donnie opened his mouth, remembered how unsettlingly vulnerable Leo had looked, and closed it. He thought for a second before trying again.

“So imagine you have two people. Let’s call them Alice and Bob-”

“Hypotheticals aren’t urgent,” Mikey groaned.

“But you’re already up.”

Mikey sighed. “Fine.”

“Anyway. Alice and Bob don’t get along. Bob used to be not that great of a guy, but he’s been trying to improve. And has made great strides.” 

“Gotcha.”

“But, before he started improving, he hurt Alice. And now Alice doesn’t feel comfortable around him.”

“Ok.”

“So,” Donnie rubbed the back of his neck. “I guess the general question is how do we help Alice feel more comfortable around Bob?”

“You don’t.” Mikey said flatly.

“We don’t?” Donnie hesitated. “But we want to help Alice.”

“Then help Alice.” Mikey said firmly. “But that doesn’t mean she has to forgive Bob. Bob still hurt her. Even if Bob has changed that isn’t a get out of free card for all the pain Bob has caused.”

Mikey took a breath and continued. 

“Bob messed up. And if he is really trying to be a better person he’ll have to accept that he can’t just expect forgiveness from the people he hurt. Alice can choose to forgive him, but she has no obligation to. And even if she never does, that doesn’t make her a bad person.”

“Right,” Donnie said, Mikey’s answer giving him the confidence to be a bit less hypothetical. “So if Alice was invited to a dinner to help reform Bob, and the thought of going is making Alice freak out...”

“She shouldn’t go. And she shouldn’t be pressured into going and-” Mikey cut himself off. “I should talk to pops shouldn’t I?”

“No,” Donnie said automatically before considering Mikey’s words. “Actually yeah, probably. But first talk to Leo.”

“Leo?”

“So based on the way that Leo and Raph had talked about the event. I had made the logical assumption that Leo had accidentally flipped over the edge during their fight with Draxum. Similar to what happened at Ghostbear’s wrestling match.”

“That’s not what happened?”

“Apparently not.” Donnie said. “Draxum caught Leo and dangled him over the edge as leverage to get his bugs back.”

“A bluff?”

“That’s what Raph thought. Raph was wrong.”

“Where?” Mikey said softly, pulling at the edge of his sweater.

“At the Nexus hotel?”

“No. Where is Leo. Now?”

“Last I saw he was with Raph in the bathroom,” Donnie said. “But they might have returned to the living room by now.”

Mikey sprinted out of his room. 

Donnie didn’t follow right away. He stopped by the kitchen to make tea, four mugs this time. All of which he precariously carried into the living room.

His brothers were already there and on their makeshift bed. Raph was holding both Leo and Mikey, the latter of whom was continuously affirming Leo’s right to not trust Draxum.

“So new plan,” Raph said softly when Donnie sat next to them. “You, me, and Mikey will have dinner with Draxum and our weapons. Leo and pops will stay here by the phone, just in case we need the backup.”

“And April?” Donnie asked, setting the mugs down.

“I’ll talk to her tomorrow and find out what she feels comfortable with,” Raph shifted slightly before asking. “Leo, Mikey, you two good with that?”

Donnie could hear Mikey’s ‘yeah’ and he could see Leo’s nod, even if his head was still pressed against Raph’s plastron.

“Also guys, Donnie brought tea if you want any while we watch some nerd TV.”

“It’s not nerd tv,” Donnie mumbled as he turned on the next segment, this one talking about how inflatable safety devices are made.

During this segment Donnie didn’t feel any need to stay awake. But he did hold onto Leo’s wrist, just in case his brother jerked awake again.

Donnie didn’t awaken until much later in the morning. Mikey was already up and moving. But Leo and Raph were still on their makeshift bed. 

Donnie gently let go of Leo’s arm and shifted, ever so slowly into a standing position. He was about to leave to check on Mikey when he caught Raph’s eye and made out his mouthed ‘help’.

Donnie nodded, hurried to his lab to grab his battle shell with his extra arms from the lab and returned to the living room. Gently he picked up Leo and allowed Raph to scoot out from underneath him. He then replaced Leo on the bed, where Leo continued to sleep.

It wasn’t until early afternoon that Leo joined them in the atrium. He was still in his pajamas, one hand rubbing his neck, refusing to look any of them in the eye.

“About last night-” He started softly.

“That’s what brothers do.” Raph cut him off. “We help each other. Besides I like the idea of having a calvary backup, just in case.” 

“Yeah?” Leo asked looking up.

“Yeah,” Mikey and Donnie agreed.

Leo gave them a small smile. “Thank you.”

  
  
  



End file.
